STINCHCOMBE archer Kieran Slater has continued his tremendous year by being picked to represent Great Britain at the World Championships in Copenhagen at the end of this month.
And it is a massive step on the ladder that could end with selection for the Rio Olympic Games in a year’s time.
Slater, 21, has joined five other recurve archers in the Great Britain squad that takes on the rest of the world in Denmark and will compete in both team and the men’s individual events.
He is in great company as previous Olympians Naomi Folkard, Amy Oliver and Larry Godfrey have all been selected as well.
Slater has just returned from the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan , where he suffered the agony of missing out on a men’s quarter-final place after losing a shoot-out against French opponent Piere Plihon.
But his father Paul said Slater is ‘quite pleased’ about his selection for the World Championships.
Slater, who has just finished his degree finals in physics and astrophysics at Leicester University, has certainly put his mark down with the hierarchy of British archery.
Oliver Logan, Head of Performance at Archery GB said: “The World Championships will be the first opportunity for the recurve archers to secure quota places for Rio 2016. This event provides a high-pressured environment to compete against the best in the world providing invaluable experience ahead of the Olympics next year.
“In June, Kieran reached the last 16 at the European Games in Baku competing against the top archers in Europe, which was the best preparation Kieran could have hoped for going into the World Championships.”
Paul said the tougher competition at the World Championships compared to the European Games would mean Kieran’s expectations are not as lofty as they were in Baku.
“He is going out there to enjoy it and see how far he gets because it will be tougher than Baku and the level of competition will be higher.
“But he wants to compete against the best (archers) out there. He is tired after Baku but completely positive.”